Common asthma drug ‘stops spread of prostate cancer’

Researchers from the University of York have discovered that a protein in bone marrow acts like a “magnetic docking station” for prostate cancer cells, helping them grow and spread outside of the prostate.

Professor Norman Maitland, the study’s lead author, said: “If we imagine the prostate cancer cell as a floating ‘space rocket’ and the only way for it to perform its mission is to ‘dock’ with another ‘space vehicle’, we start to get a picture of what happens when a cancer cell moves around the body in search of a new home.”

They’ve now found a way to disable cancer cells preventing them from multiplying at a new site in the body.

Their research showed the protein has a key-like structure that locks on to opposite receptors on the stem cells of prostate cancer. This allows cancer cells that have spread from the prostate to ‘dock’ with the protein in the bones and multiply to form a new tumour.

The researchers have found a way to block that protein.

The team found that a non-toxic drug – known as AS1517499 that’s previously has been tested for treating asthma – inhibits the cancer’s ability to spread.

This could mean that cancer spread can be slowed down or be made more receptive to cell death following traditional treatments such as chemotherapy.